


live forever if you've got the time

by DrowningInStarlight



Category: Kaleidotrope (Podcast)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Other, Parties, Romantic Fluff, Set in a nebulous future where everything is fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 07:59:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16193381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrowningInStarlight/pseuds/DrowningInStarlight
Summary: Harrison can't decide whether he likes parties or not, but he definitely likes Drew. Luckily, the feeling is mutual.





	live forever if you've got the time

**Author's Note:**

> It's me, back on my bullshit. Yay! Today I see just how heavily I can project onto other people's fictional characters. Enjoy! 
> 
>  
> 
> Title is from Save Yourself I'll Hold Them Back by MCR, don't @ me

The thing about parties is they're always so _loud._

Harrison could never decide if he liked them or not. Even now, as he stood in the centre of one, he couldn't make up his mind. The noise was like a blanket. It drowned out everything, from the words shouted clumsily across the room to the private thoughts that were running like quicksilver through everyone's minds, while bass thumped from shitty speakers. Harrison found it suffocating, and he didn't know if it was in a good way or not. 

Sometimes, it _was_ in a good way, he'd had great times at parties where the room was too small and there were too many people and someone kept playing the same five Fall Out Boy songs over and over. People had trickled away and it had ended with maybe five people lounging around on the floor in the dark, talking about their dreams and pretending tomorrow wouldn't come. Sometimes, Harrison did like parties. 

But other times... 

On the party scale, this one was probably around the middle. It wasn't as good as that one party where the host had bought about six of those children's birthday cakes, the ones with more icing than cake, and everyone had eaten coloured fondant with their fingers. It was better than the same five songs by Fall Out Boy one, though, and-- well, actually, his party scale ended there. The friend who'd invited him places dropped out of Sidlesmith, and after that Harrison was kind of lonely. 

He looked around, trying to see where Drew was. He'd only gone to get drinks, but people just melted into the semi-darkness and disappeared so utterly it was like they'd been swept away into the shadows. He stood and watched the crowd, the music thumping in his chest like a second incomprehensible heartbeat. 

Time felt like it was suspended in that dark room. He was surrounded by movement, like a wheat field caught in the night breeze. All that existed was this moment, this noise, this continuous sentence punctuated by the lights that flashed onto the ceiling and the walls. People's faces were lit up in red and orange, yellow and blue, cast in harsh light one moment and plunged into shadow the next. 

 

He couldn't pinpoint the moment it stopped being fun. Drew had been gone for ages, swallowed up by the shadows. It was too hot and too _loud_ , and the lights kept flashing round and round, flickering-- fixed up temporarily, held together with duct tape and determination, he knew they'd barely last the evening. 

He tried to take a step back, but walked into someone, who pushed him into someone else-- he stumbled, and someone caught his arm-- he looked up to see Drew, but he really felt like he couldn't breathe now, he had to get _out_. 

"Harrison?" Drew asked, but Harrison just shook his head helplessly at him, and pulled away. 

 

The night air was shockingly cold. Harrison stood just outside the door, taking deep breaths, clouds pluming into the air in front of him. The grey tarmac was covered in frost, tinted an unearthly colour by the orange glow of the street lamp above. He wished he'd thought to pick up his jacket from the thick, choking warmth inside, but he couldn't go back in, not yet. 

There was a low wall a little way down the street, and Harrison took a few shivering steps over to it. The noise of the party inside was still audible, but it was muffled and distant, drifting down from the top floor. He could easily hear the footsteps coming down the stairwell, and the door clicking open. 

"Harrison?" Drew called softly, and at the sound of his voice Harrison felt guilty and in love all at once. 

"Here," he replied. "I'm here, Drew." 

Drew came over and sat a little way away from him on the wall. "Hey," he said. 

"Hey," Harrison echoed. "I'm sorry." 

"What are you sorry for?" 

"It's cold out here," Harrison said nonsensically. The ability to successfully communicate his feelings seemed to have completely abandoned him, _it's cold out here_ , what does that even mean? 

"Yeah," Drew agreed, and Harrison noticed he didn't have his jacket on either. "Can I hug you?" 

"That'd be nice," Harrison said, and Drew moved up and put his arm around Harrison's shoulders. 

"Are you okay?" 

"I'm okay," Harrison confirmed. "It was just... Too loud, all of a sudden, in there. Sorry for worrying you." 

"No, it's okay," Drew said. "It was pretty overwhelming in there." 

"Really?" 

"Well, yeah, there was a lot of people and some _really_ shitty music, like seriously who chooses the music at these parties?"

"No, I mean, you really don't mind?" 

"That you had to leave because it was too much? No. Why would I mind? I don't want you to be in situations where you're not happy." 

"Oh." 

"Harrison?"

"It's just people often get... Mad about it, I guess. Like, friends think I'm ditching them or I'm bored or, or boring, but I swear I'm not, it's just things get too much sometimes." 

"It's a stupid thing to get mad about," Drew said, frowning. "It's not something you can choose. Overwhelm, sensory overload, that just kind of happens, right?" 

"I-- yeah. How did you know?" 

"Don't look at me like that," Drew said awkwardly. "It's not anything worth admiring, just knowing what sensory overload is." 

"Yeah? You tell my old friends that." 

"It's _not_. You deserve people in your life who take your basic needs into account!" 

Harrison smiled and laid his head on Drew's shoulder. "You're cute when you get all protective." 

"Well, it's true," Drew grumbled. It was too dark to see, the orange light warping colours, but Harrison was sure he was blushing. 

 

"I am sorry for ruining the evening," Harrison said softly, when they'd sat there in silence for a few minutes. 

" _Harrison_ ," Drew said, in quiet exasperation. "It's _fine_. Honestly, I don't like parties much-- although it was nice of Wendy to invite us, and it's great she's making time for social stuff as well as work but the music is always awful and you can't hear yourself think and I always manage to walk into someone and that's awkward because it's a party full of friends of friends so I probably don't know them personally and have forever become the _guy who made me spill my drink_ in their head..." he paused for breath. "Well. Yeah. I just don't really like parties." 

"Drew, has anyone ever told you how absolutely adorable you are?" 

"Nobody except you," Drew replied. "And I think you are unfairly biased." 

"Oh, I'm not," Harrison murmured. 

"Shh," Drew told him firmly, and leant down to kiss him. At that moment, there were a series of clatters and crashes from the doorway opposite them. A couple of guys stumbled out, the taller one leaning heavily on the shorter, who looked very, very done. 

The taller guy, who'd clearly had too much to drink, saw them sitting on the wall, Harrison practically in Drew's lap, and appeared to be trying to wolf-whistle at them. He couldn't quite seem to make it work, however, and settled for whooping and giving them enthusiastic finger guns. 

"You two've got the right idea!" he said cheerily. 

"Shut up, Lovejoy," the guy supporting him said. "Sorry about him. C'mon, you great lump, we are _leaving_ before you do anything even more embarrassing." 

"Oh, _you_. I think you're _great_ ," the taller one said into the shorter one's hair. "I think you're _super great_..." 

"Yep, definitely leaving," the shorter one said, dragging the taller one away down the street. 

Drew and Harrison looked at each other, then burst out laughing. 

Wiping his eyes, Harrison said "Wait, was that Lovejoy as in _our_ Lovejoy?" 

"Well, I can't imagine there are that many Lovejoys on campus," Drew said pointed out. "I think that was, as you said, _our_ Lovejoy, which means the guy with him was Stanwyck, right?" 

"Yeah." Harrison peered into the darkness. "Pity they went off so quickly, it would have been cool to actually meet them." 

"I don't think Lovejoy was in the condition to meet anyone," Drew said, "But yeah. Maybe next time."

"Mhmm. Anyway," Harrison said, turning back to Drew. "As you were saying..." 

Drew laughed. "Maybe we should, I dunno, go home first? This wall is not comfortable and it's freezing out here." 

"Good point," Harrison said. "I'm sure Wendy won't mind if we slip away at this point." 

"Last time I saw her, she was busy dancing," Drew agreed. "We can text her later or something." 

Harrison took Drew's hand, and they headed off down the street, headed for warmth and light. 

 

It was early in the morning when Harrison said bolt upright in bed. 

"Drew," he whispered. 

"What?" Drew mumbled sleepily. 

"We left out jackets at Wendy's place!" 

"Bugger," Drew said, then pulled Harrison back under the covers. That was a problem for daylight.

**Author's Note:**

> I checked how to spell Stanwyck's name halfway through this, and realised according to the transcripts it's spelt with a Y? So if anywhere in this I spell it with an I, my bad. 
> 
>  


End file.
